My 33rd birthday morning began well, Matt made me a breakfast burrito, we were all packed and left on time for the airport. Our flight from Burbank to Dallas was good, the (medicated) baby got some snoozes, and Max played well with his Legos. The portable DVD player helped out some too. In Dallas, we knew we had about 50 minutes to get to our gate for our Lexington, KY flight. We walked casually, got some food, and then walked around some more, having passed our gate and seen no boarding action. We realized that it was getting pretty close to takeoff, when Miss Lucy had some stinky pants. I went to change her, and Matt took Max to the gate. I return with the baby and am HORRIFIED to see that we had missed the flight. They closed the gate at 10 min before the flight and it was about 2 minutes after that. We were ASTOUNDED to realize that all our dabbling around had made us miss the last flight to Lexington of the night. It was the craziest set of feelings – embarassed and disgusted and shocked. The agent was very kind, she set us up at a local (decent) motel with a ‘distressed passenger’ room rate. We got on the shuttle, checked into the room, and after Max and I ate a dinner of french fries and pancakes at the nearby Dennys, we all went to bed. This was probably one of the top #3 WORST nights of sleep in my life. Both kids were coughing (and trying to sleep in the same bed), I was feeling sick and did I mention we were all in our same clothes? Mmmmm – it was fun to wear those same clothes the next day, too. But – we got a very decent complimentary breakfast from the motel, and arrived in Lexington late the next morning with no further troubles. After Rob and Di were done laughing at us, they took us to their wonderful house. The kids (Samantha and Max) have settled into such a loving, fun time together – it is wonderful to watch. More details of our week here to come…